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It actually has to do with the physics of sound production for the bowed string instruments.
The sound is produced on the viol family of instruments by the string "slipping across" the bow. That is, the bow catches (by friction) the string, displaces it a certain distance, until the restorative force from the tension in the string overcomes the friction ...

Beside Willie Wong's nice answer, a double-bass player needs more pressure on the bow than a violin player. The longer the distance between your hand and the tip of the bow, the greater the force your wrist would need to apply.
In other words, playing the double-bass with a bow as long as a violin's may require too much wrist strength for playing with the ...

Sharp-keys are in some ways nicer to play than flat ones.
The preference for these keys is perhaps most extreme in folk styles: going through two collections of celtic-style fiddle music[978-1-85720-202-1],[1-871931-04-5], I found the distribution to be this crass:
♭♭ : 5
♭ : 5
♮ : 7
♯ : 57
♯♯ : 70
♯♯♯: 9
In particular D major is really a great ...

This is one of the best questions I've seen for ages. I've looked for a while, but can't find a definitive answer, but hopefully I can give some useful information.
Two things: the up bow mark doesn't really describe an upward direction, but instead that the bow is pushed, rather than pulled as in a down bow. So, this helps to explain why this doesn't use ...

At first sight, i would suppose the symbols are inspired by the different shapes of the bow's frog and tip respectively. But that's a mere guess, without corroboration by sources.
EDIT:
Here's an illustration showing a bow's frog (above - notice the orthogonal shape) and tip (below - showing the characteristic "pointy" shape):
Image: By Henry ...

The answer is a relatively simple answer: it is easier for the violin an cello to play in those keys because of how the strings are configured. Look at this picture of a G scale on the violin:
As you can see, the G major scale fits very nicely on as the open strings notes make the scale extremely easy. Also because of the open string notes, many other ...

A few years ago I asked this exact question to the archetier who made my bow.
According to him, bow weight and flexibility are the things to have in mind when having a bow built. These are the things that make a difference in a bow.
Now about it being round or octagonal, it was a purely aesthetic decision. The bow can be heavier or lighter, jumpy or ...

For a given instrument (violin, viola, cello, bass is more complicated), the tuning of a fractional size instrument (1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 are commonly seen, 7/8 used to be frequently called "lady's cello") is always the same as the full size instrument.
viola is a bit complicated because professionals have different sizes (15', 16', sometimes 17' for ...

I understand your frustration.
The pegs behavior is related with different factors. Most usual factors are:
- weather changes (humid/dry weather);
- bad adjustment between peg and peg hole;
- when the pegs are long periods without being adjusted (because of use of fine-tuners or because the instrument is not played often).
Some advices:
If the peg ...

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704): La Battalia Sinfonia (1673)
From program notes:
La Battalia was written very much in the style of the day, but even these centuries later sounds rather modern, especially because of Biber’s use of percussive effects in the string writing. The work, which is in short movements, was written in 1673 in the fading ...

When you draw a bow across the strings, you are imparting energy into the combined physical system of the violin and the bow. What you want is for as much of that energy as possible to be transmitted to the strings, which transmit it to the bridge, which transmit it into the violin and then out to the air.
Like anything else, a bow isn't 100% efficient; ...

Usually the three-quarter or other smaller than standard violins are for younger, smaller children. A full sized violin would be way too much for a three or four year old to handle. The bow is appropriately smaller, as well. The spoken lengths of the strings are obviously in proportion, and a child will have to re-adapt when it grows big enough for the next ...

3/4 means three quarters size as opposed to full size.
The tuning can be the same, but the scale length is different, which means string length and tension (and thickness) are different. So while you use the same techniques, the finger positioning will vary.
The reason for these different size instruments is the difference in tonal quality. The resonant ...

This seems to be shorthand for the number of instruments it's written for - unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a standard, and each publisher uses it's own notation.
According to Wikipedia, the strings notation 2.1.2.1.1 means
2 first violins
1 second violin
2 violas
1 cello
1 double bass

For stringed instruments such as the violin, playing in sharp keys (more accurately, 0 to 4 sharps) means making multiple main notes of the tonality coincide with open strings. This amplifies the instrument's show-off potential in two ways:
In fast passages, fingering is simplified because any time the melody touches on one of the four open strings, ...

This method of notation is in fact short hand. It saves on space and time both for the person putting the information down, and for the person reading. It is true that there is no critically-accepted standard, but there are general guidelines that composers follow when they use that shorthand method; which I will outline below:
Typically, dashes are used ...

Essentially, the hair is held in place at both ends of the bow by wooden wedges. To change the hair, you need to gently remove the old wedges and cut new ones, then push the hair back into place under the new wedge. No glue is used at all. The length of the hair doesn't need to be super accurate because the bow is obviously adjusted with the tightening ...

I've done the following on many bows. Never damaged any bow.
Water mixed with some detergent, in a mug or bowl.
Unscrew and remove the nut. bring the nut near tip. Ask someone to hold the bow stick in one hand and the nut in other hand, so the bow hair hangs like a U.
Tricky part: Dip parts of bow hair in the soap-water. Rub the wet bow hair along its ...

It's definitely not the water that damaged the bow hairs. If it was the water, it probably just wasn't thorough enough, and ended up just making the hair sticky instead.
You can wash it in soap water, or better yet, horse hair shampoo. Bow hair is horse hair, after all. Just be sure to wash off the soap/shampoo really really well, or the rosin won't stick. ...

Getting everyone "on the same page" is probably not the best option in this situation--it would probably end up being stifling and uninteresting for those with more aptitude, or the less advanced students would end up getting left in the dust.
If all of the students are self-motivated, then keeping each person moving at their optimal pace (whatever that may ...

The answer to this question is related / depends on each instrument/player.
One thing you didn't mention and is important is that heavier strings might make more tension and stress on the violins neck/fingerboard.
Trying to address your questions:
Yes. But this change is bigger between different brands than different gauge on same brand.
Depends. If you ...

Because multiple things are going wrong, it sounds to me like you need to pay a qualified violin repair technician to properly set up all the parts, and then give you some advice about how to keep these problems from recurring.

An older German encyclopedia (Brockhaus, 4th edition, 1885-1892, see "Bogenführung", attention: not only German but also black letter) gives also the upside-down variants with the inverted meaning for both bow-up and bow-down marks. I found no reference for it, but could imagine, that these were abandoned to ensure orientation-independence. Note, that quite ...

To the best of my knowledge, Finale and its sound libraries do not support anything other than 12-tone equal-temperament at A=440 Hz.
However, you can purchase the full version of the stand-alone Garritan Personal Orchestra program and use it with Finale in place of the built-in Finale sounds. Garritan Personal Orchestra's ARIA playback engine can be used ...

1/4, 2/4... 4/4 are instrument proportion measurements. A child will often play in a 1,2 or 3 quarters of original size (4/4). Normally a professional instrument is a 4/4 size. The term 4/4 is most used in Schools/Student context.
What changes between them is the string length, and with that the space between fingers to tune properly. The proportion between ...

I'm going with my standard "de gustibus non disputandam" here. Yes, heavier gauge may lead to some finger stress, but proper technique will obviate that concern. Try different strings and see which ones respond most easily to your personal bowing speed & pressure. See if you can hear a difference in the sound -- and have an observer listen as well, ...

Thicker strings (aka higher gauge strings) do exert higher tension on the instrument. on a violin they will do this in two primary directions, one is is pulling the neck toward the tail piece, and the other is putting more pressure on the bridge.
I don't think having higher gauge strings will make much of a difference, but you should make sure of two ...

If you have a high-quality instrument, heavy strings shouldn't damage it.
If your instrument is made out of cardboard or you're stringing it with steel power cables, things aren't so certain. Just don't do anything ridiculous; going up a gauge or two won't exceed the parameters of a decent instrument.

The last movement of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique (1827) has a part where the violins play col legno. (Berlioz was also one of the first composers to write for saxophone.)
I once saw a student string quartet play a Mozart piece entirely col legno. They used pencil-sized sticks instead of their bows. I don't know how Mozart notated it.